longish
~
When I was a kid, I used to live with my parents in a small town, there was only about 70-80 people living there at that time. I remember the good times I had with my friends, being outside all day, playing different games and getting in trouble... Our favorite game was ding-dong ditch, we used to terrorize our neighbors that way. Our neighbors were kind, friendly, people, but there was one neighbor, everybody was scared of him. He was mentally ill, and our parents warned us not to mess with him and to stay away from his house.
His name was Martin, and he was about 35 years old at that time. Martin was really creepy, he used to get out from his house in the middle of the night and sneak into peoples back yards and just look thru windows and make creepy noises. One time he came to my house and my dad caught him and ran out of the house to confront him, but he didn't catch him. The next day my dad went to his house and said to him that he comes near my house again that he would kill him. After that every time Martin saw me outside he would smile at me in a creepy way and I remember being terrified of him.
When I was 18 years old I moved out of my parent's house and I started living alone. I found a job in the city as a security guard in a night club that was about 4h away from my parent's house, so I needed to move there. All my friends stayed in the city where we grew up.
Five years passed, some of my friends that were older than me got married, some of them got kids, including my best childhood friend Steven. One day I texted Steven that I will be in town because I got some time off due to an injury I got while working one night in the club. Some drunk guy hit me with a beer bottle and made a small cut on the back of my head but it was nothing that bad that I couldn't work I just used the situation to get some time off and, go back and visit my parents and my friends.
The next day I went to see my parents and spend some time with them. We had lunch together, and I went to see Steven. He lived just a few houses from mine. When I got there we grabbed some beers and went to his backyard to hang out. He seemed happy to see me, but something was wrong, I could see it in his eyes, so I asked him what's wrong. He said it was nothing special, but I made him tell me. His wife left him for some other guy and left him and his daughter. I couldn't believe what I was hearing, he never mentioned it when we spoke on the phone or texted, and we did that a lot. He said that it's not the only problem, he needs to go to a town that's 6h away from our town to a job interview because he lost his job here and that he needed to move there if he gets a job there. He said that he has something to ask me but was embarrassed. I told him to ask me and that I would do everything for him. He asked me to babysit his daughter Emma for two days, while he was away because he can't bring her whit him. I said no problem, and then we continued drinking beer and having fun. Steven told me to come to his house tomorrow in 7am.
The next morning I came to his house, Steven was waiting for me in front of his house with Emma. I said Hello to Emma and Steven explained to her that I will be babysitting her for the next two days while he was out of town she seemed really happy about that. I could see that Steven was worried but I assured him that everything was going to be alright. He kissed Emma and then went.
That day the weather was beautiful. First we went to the park, then we went to my parents house for lunch. It was getting dark, so I told Emma that it's time to go home. On our way home I was holding Emma's hand, and I was looking at my phone texting Steven about our day. I was talking to Emma, and I was still looking at my phone when I felt Emma squeezed my hand harder and stopped talking, so I looked up. I saw Martin, I haven't seen him for years he looked really old now, but hi still had that creepy look in his eyes. I could see that Emma was scared of him, so I picked her up. The whole time Martin and I didn't break eye contact. We got home, I put Emma down and locked the door. She said that she was really afraid of Martin and that he hurt some kids. I calmed her down and assured her that she is safe with me. We then watched some cartoons and then Emma went to bed.
Emma was asleep, so I called Steven to tell him that everything was fine and that Emma was sleeping. He just arrived in the hotel, and we continued talking over the phone. After about ten minutes of talking I asked Steven are the kids still afraid of Martin, and he said yes,he also told me some strange things were happening in our town, so I asked what things? He said that 4 kids were missing and that he doesn't trust anyone anymore except me. I was really shocked to hear that. We continued talking for 5 minutes more, and then he said he needs to go to sleep and that he will check on me and Emma in the morning. After our conversation I went on the internet and I started to search news articles about the missing kids Steven told me about. It was true, 4 kids were missing, one boy and three girls, they were missing for over a month. Eventually, I fell asleep on the living room couch.
It was 2am, and I was woken up because I heard someone walking around the house and some clicking noise at the door. I went to the door and the clicking noise stopped, I looked through the window but I couldn't see anyone. Then I checked all the windows and there was no one outside, then I went to check on Emma, she was sleeping, I went back to the living room and something caught my eye, I saw a shadow outside. I opened the front door and stepped outside, someone was standing behind a tree in front of the house. I got closer to she who it was and it was Martin. I got furious and told him to fu*k off and if I see him again I will kill him whit my bare hands, he just looked at me and smiled and then started to walk towards his house. I got back inside and went in to the bathroom to take a shower and calm myself down, I was in the shower for maybe 20 minutes when I heard glass breaking, I quickly went outside the bathroom and I could see broken glass on the flour and Martin, he was trying to get inside the house. I started running towards him to kick his ass when I saw he has a knife, I grabbed his hand immediately and tried to take his knife from him. He tried to stab me a couple of times, but he didn't he just cut my hands a little. After about 2 minutes of wrestling and punching him, he let go of the knife and I got on top of him and started to punch him in the face. Then I heard Emma screaming, I looked up, she was standing in front of me looking at me while I was punching Martin, I told her to go to the bathroom and lock the door, that when I felt the worst pain in my life. Martin grabbed the knife somehow and stabbed me in the leg. He pushed me away and started running towards Emma, she was still screaming, I managed to grab him by the leg when he got up, and he fell face forward on the ground. I got on his back, grabbed his hair and started banging his head on the floor, after the second blow he was unconscious. I quickly grabbed Emma and my phone and locked us in the bathroom, I was bleeding really bad, so I put a towel around my leg and tied it tight. I called the police and explained everything to them. The police came 20 minutes later with 6 patrol cars. I went outside when I heard the sirens, Martin was gone. The police officer called an ambulance because I didn't mention I was hurt, and we stayed with him while the others searched Steven's house. Five minutes later I heard something going on inside the house and I heard a gunshot. The police officers that were in the house came out with Martin, he was in handcuffs, and he was looking at the ground. When I saw him I fell unconscious.
I woke up in the hospital the next day. Emma, Steven, my mom and dad were in the room whit me. They all hugged me when opened my eyes. The first thing that I asked was: "Did they catch Martin?!". Then my mom looked at Emma and asked her if she could show her some toys in the hall. The two of them left the room. My dad told me that Martin was in Jail and that the police went to his house, they found the missing kids and that they found evidence linking Martin to several murders that have taken place in surrounding cities in recent years. Martin confessed everything.
